D.C. appeals court keeps Trump's transgender military ban in place despite one judge's blistering dissenthttps://www.advocate.com/news/trans-military-ban-continues 🔗Christopher Wiggins (9 Dec 2025)
A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., has handed the Trump administration a major win in its effort to purge transgender people from the U.S. military, ordering that a nationwide block on the ban remain on hold while the case continues.
In a two-to-one, 52-page ruling issued Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the Pentagon can keep enforcing its 2025 policy, which bars transgender individuals from service, while the government appeals a lower court ruling against the ban. The judges dissolved a short-term administrative stay they put in place in March and replaced it with a full stay pending appeal of U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes's injunction.
"Today, the court declined to halt the unjust discharge process now threatening thousands of transgender service members," National Center for LGBTQ+ Rights legal director Shannon Minter, who represents transgender military members in the case, told The Advocate after the ruling. "On January 22, we will argue before the DC Circuit that District Judge Ana Reyes correctly found that this ban causes irreparable harm and is rooted not in facts, data, or reason—but in animus. Notably, all three judges on today's panel acknowledged that Hegseth's ban is driven by animus."
